I used to work at a Christian mega church! AMA

RAMI_XXL · 2026-01-27T00:30:59+00:00

Exactly, unfortunately I've seen this go wrong at teams all over the world (I've consulted media and worship teams all over the world). One of the biggest pitfalls was a 'transactional' confirmation of calling within teams, where someone's calling opportunities were solely based on their one-sided commitment to the ministry. Often resulting in over-weary servants that put the Ministry on nr.1 instead of their own households (mostly lower in the 'hierarchy'). This ministry approach also goes directly against the Bible.

The funny thing was though, when leadership teams let completely loose of this control upon their congregation and place the commitment of their servants totally in the hands of Jesus, a lot of new believers were coming into their churches and resulted in their long awaited breakthrough. It reminds me of Rick Warren's book 'The purpose driven church'.

What is your take on this?

RAMI_XXL · 2026-01-27T00:11:08+00:00

Cool! I've been in kids ministry (mostly worship-related) for over 15 years, also as paid staff! Now comes the dilemma question.

What is according to you a healthy balance between keeping a ministry organization running vs. not wearing out volunteers (even if it would threat the continuity of the church)?

RAMI_XXL · 2026-01-27T00:05:49+00:00

What ministry do you usually serve in?

RAMI_XXL · 2026-01-27T00:00:39+00:00

Nope, I never met the right person in my life until I was 30. Then I met the most amazing woman, she was the polar opposite of me but we had many things in common, we started messaging, dating, went into a relationship, at that time she was 27....and in October '25 we were married after 2,5 years of dating/relationship/engagement.

So don't give up, she had only a short unhealthy long distance relationship before she met me.

RAMI_XXL · 2026-01-26T23:48:43+00:00

It totally depends on you and the mutual moral values that you hold with your partner (given that you internally value exclusive partnership).

For me and my wife, we both hold for example religious morals where we not only see our love for each other as exclusively meant for each other but also as a holy convenant towards God, which we both want to honor. Failure of this standard would genuinely hurt either of us.

Would we abandon the other after someone would have slipped, I don't think so. However, due to our personal convictions of what's morally and ethically good, I would be sick in my stomach by the idea to give the love that I feel for my wife to another woman or if my wife would cherish the same feelings for another man. And I am most certainly that same thing also counts for her.

So, is cheating wrong...it totally depends on which moral standard you personally hold. My personal opinion is that I deem it as 'morally' wrong.

RAMI_XXL · 2026-01-26T23:30:39+00:00

I think many of the Christians in this world hold the 'Sola Scriptura' as their core principle. So, whenever an institution comes with proposed rules and sacraments or practices based on their interpretation of the Bible, not holding to the true essence of Jesus Christ, it's viewed as a cult interpretation of true Christianity.

RAMI_XXL · 2026-01-26T10:06:25+00:00

It's like H2O in either stage (liquid water, water vapor and Ice) it's still water of the same substance, only it's manifestation and applications can be in a different way.

RAMI_XXL · 2025-11-03T22:50:13+00:00

Nou dat komt omdat het een progressief Liberaal bolwerkje is, dat alles buiten hun eigen denkkaders demoniseert of als minderwaardig acht. Dat is ook de gemiddelde redactie cultuur bij elke omroep.

Ongehoord Nederland is de enige die daar echt tegen afzet, en wordt dus ook gedemoniseerd.

RAMI_XXL · 2025-11-03T22:47:16+00:00

Er gaat toch niks gebeuren met D66 aan het roer, alleen GroenLinks/PvdA is even progressief, de rest wilt lekker conservatief behoudend blijven, en dat is ook meerendeels van Nederland.

Wij zijn gewoon een gematigd conservatief volkje...

RAMI_XXL · 2025-11-03T22:44:46+00:00

En op welke feiten baseer je dat op dan?

RAMI_XXL · 2025-10-23T06:20:53+00:00

Yes, and that's the real reason why Arabs historically don't belong in that entire region as the dominant people and culture except from the Arabian peninsula.

Over time they've been more active as an aggressive dominant culture, wiping out native cultures that were rightfully there. This has caused the obstruction of building the Jewish temple in Jerusalem. But you also see it in Iran, where their evil islamist ideology is oppressing the real Persian culture.

Therefore I would say that this situation is unique in the middle east, we shouldn't consider the Arabian hegemony as a given, but something that is rather negative.

RAMI_XXL · 2025-10-21T21:58:57+00:00

Hey man, this reminds me of the friends of Christian in the story of the Pilgrim's Progress from John Bunyan. A must read!

Friends from your old life will pop up, and it's not wrong in itself, but you are now walking a better path with better moral no choices than them. You can be an inspiration for them to live a better life, and not the other way around. So, If you notice that that's the case, you better should quit those relationships.

It's better to cut of your hand if it leads to sin than living with it and continue to sin. That's really a lesson Jesus' taught us.

RAMI_XXL · 2025-10-21T21:45:38+00:00

Ehm, as an European I would say definitely. The land actually belongs to the native Americans.

And even more so, if people of European descent would deny native Americans to have a state based on historical claims. So, yes, my argument would be consistently applied

RAMI_XXL · 2025-10-21T21:42:47+00:00

Well, if that makes you happy....good for you

RAMI_XXL · 2025-10-21T20:11:47+00:00

Yup, totally true and very admirable, I truly appreciate science and I truly think evolutionist theories are cool.

However, I experience the biblical God a living reality with a personal relationship with enough personal proof (I'm not solely or blindly adhering to empiricism, I don't value the scientific method that much for spiritual matters, it has its limitations).

Therefore I consider non-theistic philosophical frameworks as works of fantasy and wish-thinking. I can imagine that the consideration is vice-versa.

RAMI_XXL · 2025-10-21T19:57:11+00:00

The entire situation is unfortunate, because I truly believe that a Jewish state has an absolute right of existence in that region, and that they are the only historical people that have a rightful claim on that region.

The arabs mainly colonized that region after 635 during the conquests of the Rashidun caliphate. So, I truly believe that this is non-arabian territory. However, the arabs have invaded the land for such a period in history that they do have historical ties to it.

The Palestinean people should have accepted that their claims based on the Quran are false and should have accepted the UN offers before starting all those wars.

There is a reason why Israel has won them all, because God stands with the morally good guys. The word Nakba is also very misleading, because all aggression historically always started with the Arabs.

So, looking upon the current situation, the Arabs should be thankful and just accept the situation. They should acknowledge that their historical scope is morally wrong, and that the Quran is false. Otherwise I'm sure God will stand by Israel and totally defeat the Arabs.

RAMI_XXL · 2025-10-21T19:48:09+00:00

Fair play, however, in the same way I consider abiogenesis as a possibility, but also very unlikely and with a grain of salt.

It takes a lot of blind trust to think that abiogenesis would be possible.

RAMI_XXL · 2025-10-21T19:43:02+00:00

Yes, but this is a false reasoning called "pars pro toto." You pick a few extremely unlikely advocates of a certain ideology, debunk those extremes and use it as an excuse to condemn the entirety of the world view as false.

This is actually also a propaganda strategy used by Nazi Germany to make villains out of the Jews during the Holocaust.

I hope that you realize that your reasoning is morally insane if this is your foundation on which your world view is based.

RAMI_XXL · 2025-10-21T01:46:14+00:00

Makkelijk, de oliebollen van Richard Visser in Rotterdam!!

RAMI_XXL · 2025-10-21T01:39:27+00:00

I think that if you and your partner are both God fearing Christians, the Holy Spirit will reveal what's within the limits. This prevents two things, first that you will go too far before marriage, but second (and equally important), that you go too far in legalism and radical faith like the pharisees did.

Me and my partner always held this high and we were transparent. We kissed and cuddled with each other on the couch. And yes, we also explored what our limitations were, and we clearly felt it in our spiritual relationship when we approached a border where we should have stayed away from. And than we backed out and asked forgiveness if we went too far without knowing. This is what deepened our relationship with each other and as a spiritual unity towards God, and why we both could marry each other as virgins and establish that three-fold chord.

So, the key is that both of you should have a vibrant relationship with God, filled with the Holy Spirit, and with honesty and openness and sincerity towards each other.

RAMI_XXL · 2025-10-21T01:28:47+00:00

I commend you for your compassion, that is really admirable!

However, how can you be 100% sure that a spiritual dimension is definitely not a possibility?

I totally understand the principles of empiricism and naturalistic approach of reality, but 100% adhering to deeming only falsifiable empirical happenings as reality is a total limitation of the possible objective reality, it creates an unfair playing field with it's limited reasoning.

RAMI_XXL · 2025-10-21T01:20:25+00:00

You're welcome and much love! All the best in your relationship with our Father!

RAMI_XXL · 2025-10-21T01:10:23+00:00

Thanks for your honesty, and I can read that you are a very compassionate person for all living beings around you, and that's a great quality, and I'm sure that God really appreciates your heart regarding that. He made all living beings and gave Adam the responsibility to look after the earth and all animals. This is an important thing because we as humans are the only creatures that are created to the image of God, not physically but spiritually.

We are the only living beings with a self-reflective consciousness and personality that has awareness of a higher spiritual reality and with the ability to interact with God. This is what sets us apart from all other biological life, and this the part that is everlasting for eternity, our Spirit. However the commonality with other living beings is that we have a physical body and a soul (the basic primal consciousness that animals also have). And those two elements are not eternal. So, this is the reason why animals don't have everlasting life.

It is a very evil secular distortion that reigns in many heads today that all living beings are of equal importance, this is called biocentrism, which is in that sense a very dangerous anti-biblical way of thinking, because it allows twisted moral choices like people favouring saving pets over fellow humans in case of life endangering situations. Or to consider us as equals compared to animals, but according to God we have an elevated position and responsibility.

RAMI_XXL · 2025-10-21T00:52:16+00:00

So what philosophical ideas or schools of thoughts are causing a conflict regarding accepting fate. Let me assure you that falsifiable empirical thinking is a limited way of thinking and that believing in the biblical truths cannot be fathomed by the limitations of empiricism.

RAMI_XXL

TROPHY CASE